A's waste no time trolling Giants after Giancarlo Stanton trade rejection

Giancarlo Stanton rejecting the Giants trade opened the door for the A’s to land a jab. (AP)
Giancarlo Stanton rejecting the Giants trade opened the door for the A’s to land a jab. (AP)

Unlike 28 years ago, when the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s met in the 1989 World Series, the bay area rivalry doesn’t get much national attention these days. That’s because the perception is there isn’t much to it anymore. Not with the Giants having won three World Series championships in the last eight years, while the A’s remain a small market team that’s stuck in the mud.

Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that’s the reality. The rivalry hasn’t lost much steam, if any at all. That’s true among the fans, and it’s true among the organizations as the A’s reminded us on Friday.

The day was not a good one for the Giants. After reaching an agreement with the Miami Marlins on a trade for Giancarlo Stanton, the Giants learned that Stanton invoked his full no-trade clause to block the agreed to trade from going through. The disappointed Giants released a statement acknowledging as much, and it was impossible not to feel their disappointment.

The Giants didn’t receive much sympathy from fans around that league considering their recent success. But the most ruthless response came from the A’s Twitter account, which seemed to relish in rubbing salt in the Giants wound.

It’s not exactly vicious, but it still hits pretty hard.

Of course, one could easily say the A’s have no room to trash-talk given their history. After all, this is a team that’s rarely in the mix for a notable free agent. In fact, it’s known more for trading its own players once they attain a certain amount of success and service than anything else.

But the rules for trash-talking or trolling if you prefer is that there really aren’t any rules. It’s about striking while the iron is hot, and the iron couldn’t have been any more hot than the moment that tweet was sent. The A’s win this round. Now it’s up to the Giants and their fans to come back strong.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Yahoo Sports Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!